


The Faun and the Bear

by vampgirltish



Category: VIXX
Genre: Animals, Fantasy, Fauns, M/M, Magic, Shapeshifters - Freeform, forest life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 01:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13753554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampgirltish/pseuds/vampgirltish
Summary: The sun creeped up as Hakyeon began his path around the forest again. He spent time combing the trees for lost travelers, for creatures in need, and for anyone new to call a friend. Hakyeon was a friend to nearly every creature in the southern edge of the forest, and though it was tiring, it was rewarding.





	The Faun and the Bear

The sun creeped up as Hakyeon began his path around the forest again. He spent time combing the trees for lost travelers, for creatures in need, and for anyone new to call a friend. Hakyeon was a friend to nearly every creature in the southern edge of the forest, and though it was tiring, it was rewarding. The only creature he had spent little time with was the bear who lived in the cave at the north side of Tarnsynth Forest. Hakyeon knew little about this creature—he slept when Hakyeon was awake, and they rarely interacted. A part of Hakyeon was scared of the bear, since he rarely dealt with the carnivores of the forest. The carnivores all lived in the north.

Hakyeon was a vulnerable creature as a faun, though skilled in a bow, and he spent a lot of time at the cusp of north and south trying to fend for the even more vulnerable than he. That was when he saw the bear the few times he did. The fur was spread across the bear’s face, lighter patches across his face, around his eyes. Hakyeon knew nothing about this bear, except that the bear would drink from the pool near the border and watch the fights. 

Hakyeon made his way to the border, seeing the bear there. The bear looked tired, and Hakyeon desperately wanted to speak to the creature. But what would he say? There wasn’t much he could say. They likely didn’t have much in common—the faun and the bear. He wondered what the bear’s name was, what the bear liked. The bear was one of the few creatures that Hakyeon didn’t know, and Hakyeon knew that there was something he needed to know about it. He just didn’t know what.

The bear needed him. Maybe Hakyeon really just needed the bear, but there is something there, something about it. The bear was different, the only species that Hakyeon didn’t know among this whole community. That’s what he told himself, anyway. One needed the other, Hakyeon was sure of that—but he wasn’t sure who fit which role.

~*~*~

The sun was setting now, and Hakyeon felt tired. He’d picked off a few offenders, protecting the lesser from the larger, and keeping peace. He’d solved some arguments, listened to some of the creatures’ woes and pains. It was tiring, day after day, but that was his lifestyle. He tucks his bow back in its holster and walks back to his home. He lived alone, but he had visitors often. His lifetime friend, a puma shapeshifter named Taekwoon, came by pretty frequently. Though he was a large cat, and he liked to stumble around Hakyeon’s house, Taekwoon’s intentions were kind and he just felt lonely some days. Taekwoon’s hair was a pretty blonde, wavy and soft, his eyes sharp just like his animal counterpart.

Sanghyuk was another shifter, a moose. Every time Sanghyuk visited Hakyeon, Hakyeon forced him to shift to human before entering his home because he was a mess with his large rack of antlers. So many broken glasses later, Hakyeon knew it would be better for the both of them for Sanghyuk to be human. Sanghyuk had dark navy blue hair, a large nose that almost mimicked the nose of the moose he turned into. He was wide like his antlers, and his laughter was filled with adorable squeaks.

The indication that told Hakyeon that Sanghyuk and Taekwoon were shifters was that they never seemed to drop some of their human behaviors. That was the easiest way to tell a shifter from a real animal. There were a few shifters in the forest that were worse than others at masking this, but they all did a decent job when it came to predators. Taekwoon would put his paws to his neck when Hakyeon would compliment his beautiful fur, something that looked odd to someone who knew anything about pumas. Luckily, Taekwoon didn’t get embarrassed often in the wild as an animal. Sanghyuk would forget altogether he was an animal and try to speak, humming under his breath a kind of lilting pattern of bum-bum-bum, the same every time, as if it were the only thing he knew and embedded in his very being.

Hongbin was the son of the god of the forest, though fates had decided he would be a forest nymph. The rarest thing of his nymph nature is that he was one of the first male nymphs. His gentle nature and desire to love creatures had earned him that title, and is what largely led him to being a nymph. Hakyeon never could get over the fact that Hongbin was near naked oftentimes, but leaves and ivy seemed to tangle around his skin like the veins in his body, circulating life within it. Hongbin’s shining feature was his soft pale pink hair, though the dimpled smile and the bright eyes helped too. Jaehwan was…something. A fairy, so wicked and playful by nature, Jaehwan liked to tease Hakyeon and cause trouble. Hakyeon still loved him despite this, though sometimes he’d threaten to swat the damn fairy like a pest if he kept it up. Honey brown hair and a mischievous lopsided smile, the fairy seemed to pop up at the most inopportune times. 

Taekwoon, Sanghyuk, Hongbin, and Jaehwan were Hakyeon’s friends. But Hakyeon still wanted to know that bear. Taekwoon knew Hakyeon the best, but he felt as though the bear could know him better. He didn’t know how he’d be able to communicate with a bear who knew no language other than the guttural grunts of its own kind. Hakyeon knew he couldn’t learn a bear’s language easily, and especially not to sate his heart that wanted to speak to the bear at the instant. It was unlikely. 

Hakyeon sat in his armchair in his small home, Taekwoon spread out on the floor, sitting in front of the fire and appearing much more like a common house-cat than a menacing puma. Hongbin had come with Taekwoon, and was busy with his nose pressed into a ledger of orders that his father had given him. Hongbin seemed bored out of his wits, and quickly snapped his book shut at the invitation of speaking when Hakyeon starts, “I just don’t know what to do.”

“About the bear?” Hongbin replied.

“About any of it.”

“But it’s mostly the bear,” Taekwoon supplied, knowing that was what Hakyeon was thinking of.

“This is among the first few times I’ve ever seen you at a loss, Hakyeon,” Hongbin said. “Usually you’re the man with the plan.” At Hakyeon’s look, Hongbin corrected, “The half-man with the plan.”

Taekwoon yawned, stretching his paws, “Why do you care about a dumb bear anyway? They just lumber around and eat all the fish. Doesn’t seem interesting to me.”

Hakyeon frowned, “I care about every creature in this woods.”

“Even the ones from the north side?”

“Especially those.”

Taekwoon shook his head and it was then that Hakyeon could tell once again that Taekwoon was human under all that fur and flesh. “You care too much.”

“You care too little,” Hongbin commented.

Taekwoon turned his head, eyes sharp and full of the anger of man and puma combined, “I care deeply, but I care selectively, Hongbin. Don’t misconstrue.”

Hakyeon put his palms out as if to beckon peace from them, “Stop arguing. I don’t want to have to solve another issue now. What do I do about this bear?”

“Well, how do you interact with the non-shifting creatures?” Taekwoon asked.

“I learned the similar chittering languages that the rodents use, and for the rest I just express through actions.”

“There’s your answer,” Hongbin said. “Actions. It’s just a bear, and you’re at the disadvantage as a prey faun. You can handle it, Hakyeon.”

“Actions…” Hakyeon said to himself, trailing his voice away to nothing. The smoke from the fire rises slowly, sputtering out of the chimney. Hakyeon thought of the bear once again, and felt determination rise in his stomach. He will make contact with the bear.

~*~*~

He had made plans to see Taekwoon the following day, hoping to find some solace in his lifelong friend. However, the weather had seemed to disagree, a torrential downpour had hit the forest, breaking branches and leaving puddles in its wake. He would have to apologize to Taekwoon the next time they spoke, due to missing their meeting… But, as the sun came up once more, Hakyeon stepped out into the mud, needing some fresh air. The rain still fell despite the sunlight, and Hakyeon wondered if somewhere in the forest, two foxes were having a wedding, as was the myth.

He looked at himself in the puddle, looking at his own reflection in the water. He looked at himself, his tanned skin, his brown locks, his gentle eyes, his too-wide smile. His lips were small and heart-shaped, his cheeks round when he smiled, but sharp when he didn’t. He could see the way that his face changed from that of a normal human—the pale white spots of a deer speckling his cheeks, the way his nose was shaped much smaller, and mimicked the color and texture of a deer’s. He looked at himself for a long time. Hakyeon bent down and touched the puddle, the water rippling from where his finger had made impact. The ripples put circles over his reflection, distorting himself until he was nothing but colors and blurry shapes. Perhaps that was how he felt. Maybe that was how people saw him.

Hakyeon saw his parents in himself. He saw his father’s eyes, his mother’s nose. His parents had both come from the south side, but they encouraged him to be kind to every creature he met. Amidst the constant fighting from north and south, predator and prey against each other when they could feasibly live in harmony. His mother taught him gentleness, his father taught him wisdom. He used these more often than his arrows, and often these solved problems more easily than arrows did. He never shot to kill, only shot to get a point across. The wounds he made would heal easily. He never wanted to hurt anyone. 

The north, full of predators and much less sunny than the south, was the part of the forest that fell into havoc before Hongbin’s father had started to get it under control. The god of the forest had struggled to keep the north well-put together because of the difficulty to talk to them. He could speak their language—he just had trouble getting them to listen. He had thought Hongbin would help, his calm beauty and gentle nature beneficial to keeping peace. This did not work either. The north would not listen, and the south had begged them to. The south, along with the god of the forest, had suggested other means of getting by than hurting each other or consuming one another. The south wanted this, for their families’ sake and for the sake of their whole community, both north and south. The north was unwilling to change.

~*~*~

The next few days led to nothing. The bear was not there for the first two, the next two Hakyeon found himself too shy to approach, and soon a week had passed since his conversation with Hongbin and Taekwoon. Eventually, Hakyeon felt as though he would never find himself brave enough to speak to the bear, to get close to it. Even if he did, he’d never know the bear’s name. He couldn’t speak. He watched the bear drink from the pool again, for what felt like the hundredth time, lost in thought.

“Hey!” A voice startles Hakyeon from his thoughts, and he jumps, whipping around and hand reaching over his shoulder to grab his bow by instinct.

It was Jaehwan.

“If you keep sneaking up on me, I’m going to end up putting an arrow through your chest, Jaehwan.”

“It’s worth the risk because of how funny it is when you get scared,” Jaehwan responded. “What’re you staring at?”

“Nothing,” Hakyeon said, but the comment meant nothing. Jaehwan followed where Hakyeon’s eyesight had been before, and he saw the bear there, now lounging the side of the pool. 

“What’re you doing spending your waking hours staring at a stupid bear, Yeonnie?”

“I told you not to call me that. And I’m not staring at a bear.”

“That’s exactly what you’re doing.”

“No, it’s not.”

Jaehwan’s eyes glinted and he tapped the side of Hakyeon’s face, on his temple. “You can keep lying, but fairies are among the first to be able to tell so. Just tell me what’s bothering you, Yeonnie.”

Hakyeon didn’t want to deal with Jaehwan’s comments right now, but there was little else he could do. He grumbles, pondering his options. “I… I want to get to know the bear. It’s the only creature in the forest I haven’t talked to yet.” And he felt that there was something important about this creature. The elusiveness, the tug and pull of their non-existent relationship. He wanted to know why he wanted this so bad.

“Then go?” Jaehwan suggested, pointing out the obvious. Clearly.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t!” Hakyeon says. “I can’t do it.”

Jaehwan frowned. “You’re a baby, Kiki. Let Jaehwan help you.” It was never good when Jaehwan said he would help. Jaehwan spoke something in fae, and cupped Hakyeon’s cheeks. Then, with a pat to his left cheek, he turned Hakyeon around and pushed him gently. “Go get ‘em.”

Hakyeon’s hooves were moving of their own choice, and he had no control. They took him to where the bear was laying, sunning in the grass. Hakyeon feels fear creep up his back. He was going to kill Jaehwan for this. 

“Um…” he started. The bear wouldn’t even understand him anyway. “Hey. Um… I’m… Hakyeon,” he said anyway. The bear stirs, sitting up and blinking lazily at him, likely disturbed by the sounds of Hakyeon speaking and arguing with Jaehwan. “I know that I’m not your friend, and you don’t know me, but I want to change that.” Hakyeon stupidly reached a hand to the bear, palm down and open. Stupid choice. But, hell, most of his close friendships were borne from stupidity—namely Sanghyuk’s antlers getting stuck in bramble because he’d thought it was a wise idea to search through them, and Jaehwan’s bottles being broken because he failed to watch where he was going. 

The bespectacled bear looked up at him, eyes wide and curious. Nonthreatening. The bear padded closer, moving towards Hakyeon’s open palm. Was it really this easy? Was he really about to make contact with this bear so easily? He had expected it to be more difficult. He had expected that this would take more time, that the bear would run away or bite him or fight him before letting him go near—

There’s a distant grunt, the sound of another bear. Then another. The bespectacled bear turned, grunting in response, and looks back at Hakyeon. The expression on his face is oddly human, somehow expressing ‘sorry’ without even speaking or having the human features to do so. The bear ambled off, and Hakyeon was alone at the pool.

~*~*~

Hakyeon lacked the confidence to try to interact with the bear again for several days. Jaehwan’s spell had only lasted the hour. Sanghyuk had stopped by, only to make fun of Hakyeon for giving up so easily. Taekwoon had simply offered comfort by sleeping beside him in his bed as he was ought to do. They did that as friends, whenever one was lonely or needed comfort. The only person who offered any help was Hongbin. Hongbin comforted Hakyeon, telling him that there were more opportunities to interact with the bear someday. 

“What does this bear even look like? I can ask the bear I’m friends with if he’s ever seen him.” Hongbin was lucky enough to be a nymph, so he could speak with all of the forest’s creatures. 

“Um… he… he’s brown.”

“That’s literally every bear in the forest,” Hongbin said. “I need specifics. Are there any markings?”

“Glasses,” Hakyeon said quickly. “He… he has glasses. Markings that—yeah, you know what I mean.”

“Brown… glasses markings… Oh! Oh,” Hongbin said, his voice raising in realization. “That’s Wonshik!”

“Won—how do you know?”

“That’s my friend. Wonshik,” he said. “Wonshik’s really cool. He’s the best friend I always talk about.”

Hakyeon nodded, not really listening as he stood. “I’m gonna go talk to him again.” Hakyeon made his way out of his own home, leaving Hongbin talking to nobody. “Hakyeon, he’s—” Hakyeon wasn’t listening anyway. He made his way to the clearing, where the bear was sitting once again.

“Wonshik!”

The bear turned with a grunt. 

“Wonshik, I’m Hakyeon. It’s nice to meet you,” Hakyeon said again. He offered his palm out again, and Wonshik stepped closer. This felt like a crowning moment, even if it was the second time around. Wonshik nuzzled his face into Hakyeon’s palm. His fur was soft and warm from the sun. Hakyeon rubbed his face with a gentle smile. “I hope we can be friends, Wonshik.”

The bear looked at him curiously, and Hakyeon found himself jealous of Hongbin, who could speak to this creature. He wanted nothing more than to understand what it was that this creature had to say. Hakyeon stepped back and sat down by the edge of the pool, stretching and dipping his hooves into the pool. Wonshik watched him for a moment before flopping down next to Hakyeon. Resting his chin on Hakyeon’s lap, Wonshik dipped a large paw into the water too. Hakyeon smiled. They were bonding, already close it seemed. Something intimately intertwined about the faun and the bear. Predator and prey. Just as the myths had talked of the lion laying down with the lamb, so too did Wonshik, the bear, for Hakyeon, a faun.

Of course, the tenderness of this moment quickly changed when that large paw batted water into Hakyeon’s face, and Hakyeon gasped in surprise. He looked down to the bear, whose face was wet but he was most assuredly grinning in the way only a bear could. 

“Hey!” Hakyeon said, but he couldn’t help but laugh. “That was mean!”

The bear was still grinning at him, and Hakyeon felt connected to the bear more in this instant.

~*~*~

Hakyeon panted as he flopped back onto the grass. Another play fight between he and Wonshik, and Wonshik won. Wonshik always did, though—a faun was no match for a bear, anyway. The two laid side-by-side in the clearing, looking up at the sky much the way that Hakyeon did while the two rolled around in the grass. The sun was bright, warming their bodies as they lay. 

Hakyeon spoke up. He always talked more than Wonshik… of course, Wonshik couldn’t speak anyway. “I’m a bit insecure, you know.” Wonshik looked over. “I don’t think people really like me… My skin… y’know… it’s kind of dark. Hongbin has such pretty skin. His almost sparkles…” Wonshik frowned, if a bear could, and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose against Hakyeon’s cheek. Hakyeon reached a hand up absently and scratched behind Wonshik’s ear. “You don’t think that way, do you?” Wonshik nuzzled closer and Hakyeon smiled. Wonshik didn’t mind.

“I’ve got some sort of sneaking suspicion…” Hakyeon started, then trailed off. Wonshik butted his forehead against Hakyeon’s shoulder, urging him on. Hakyeon laughed, the ends of his giggles trailing into his words. “I think that Taekwoon and Hongbin have some kind of secret affair. Or that they’re just dating and won’t tell me and Sanghyuk. Jaehwan probably knows because Jaehwan knows everything, somehow. Or he got it out of them with some spell. Either way…”

Hakyeon looked at the sky and the two fell into silence for a minute. “I mean… I look at the way they interact with each other…” Hakyeon’s voice grew quieter and there was something there. A kind of longing… “Hongbin would always say how pretty Taekwoon’s eyes are, and Taekwoon wouldn’t shut up about how beautiful Hongbin’s hair is or the way his hands look.” Hakyeon paused for a second, as if he was trying to think of what to say. “The way they’re always… touchy. Taekwoon is really only touchy with me and Hongbin… and Hongbin is never touchy. Except for with Taekwoon. And… God! The way they laugh? They’re so funny together. Hongbin will open his mouth to say a joke and Taekwoon will already start laughing.” Hakyeon looked down at the bear, nuzzled against his chest. “They… seem really happy,” he settled on.

It seemed as if the bear had fallen asleep, the subtle rise and fall of his side and the sure and steady breathing against Hakyeon’s skin. Hakyeon spoke quietly then, perhaps only to himself. “I wish I could be happy like that, too.” He was sure Wonshik hadn’t heard him.

~*~*~

They sat side-by-side among the daffodils and the dahlias in the meadow. Hakyeon picked the daffodils and wove them into a crown, placing it on his head, “I wonder what it would be like,” Hakyeon started, “if I was a shifter. I could change my hair to blonde. Imagine that, a blonde faun! Do you think blonde would suit me?”

Hakyeon watched Wonshik’s muzzle crinkle, almost as if laughing.

“What! You don’t think I’d suit blonde?” Hakyeon said, laughing in return. “Maybe not…” Hakyeon reached for some of the dahlias and the abandoned stems of some of the daffodils from before. He began to weave them absently as he spoke more, “I’ve always wanted to cook.”

Wonshik cocked his head to the side.

“I’m the world’s worst cook. I’ve burnt everything I’ve ever made. It’s a disaster… Taekwoon always mocks me for it, because he’s a great cook.” Wonshik nuzzled his snout against Hakyeon’s arm as he tucks another dahlia into the woven crown. Hakyeon rubbed his head affectionately, smiling a little. “But, hey, maybe it’s for the best.” 

Hakyeon looked down at his folded legs, sitting criss-crossed on the grass, eyes moving away from his weaving fingers and settling onto his hooves.Wonshik lifted his head with a curious expression, pulling away from the reverie of Hakyeon’s gentle pats. “I’ve always liked dancing and music. I love the way it makes me feel… I’d like to think in some other life I’d be a fantastic dancer, and if it weren’t for these hooves I’d dance more… I get embarrassed because I just trip over them.”

Wonshik nuzzled back against Hakyeon’s hand, and Hakyeon set the finished dahlia crown on Wonshik’s head, grinning stupidly. “Oh~ How cute~”

~*~*~

Wonshik and Hakyeon became almost inseparable. Though nobody could replace Taekwoon as his lifelong friend, Hakyeon felt connected to Wonshik in a different way that he couldn’t describe. Wonshik was just a bear, but there was something familiar, something in there that was just bubbling under the surface. He couldn’t decide what it was. Hakyeon decided it was his desire to befriend the bear that was making him still perceive some new excitements, though Wonshik’s friendship with him was always exciting. Hakyeon always had fun with Wonshik. He liked to think they were best friends.

Wonshik liked to play fight with Hakyeon, just man to man… or rather, bear-to-faun. It never was with malice and they never hurt each other. Hakyeon lost every time because he was much smaller, but that was okay because it made Wonshik happy. Wonshik and Hakyeon were rolling around on the grass, Wonshik growling but not really meaning it and Hakyeon laughing. It was the way they worked, the way they were friends.

Hakyeon focused a lot on the landscape and on the way Wonshik’s face moved. The muscles of bears were fascinating, the way their lips curled and the way that they furrowed their brows. Hakyeon then started to look at the clouds as Wonshik flipped him over and pinned them to the ground with his large paws. The clouds were shaped like different animals. He thought that he saw one shaped like Jaehwan—

A sudden pain stings his shoulder and he gasps in surprise. Wonshik whipped back, eyes wide and scared, backing away quickly. Hakyeon looked over at his shoulder, now bloodied and searing with pain. Had… Wonshik bit him? After the trust he put in him? Tears welled up in Hakyeon’s eyes and he couldn’t help it… He wanted to trust Wonshik but now he couldn’t, could he? This is what he got for trusting animals from the northern side.

He blinks away his tears and finds Wonshik gone. The clearing is empty, and he can’t help but feel more alone. He would have to walk all the way home, and find Hongbin to help him. Then, he would call for Taekwoon and he would stroke the puma’s back as the puma laid close, seeking solace in his friend.

A man appears from the underbrush, seemingly taking the place of Wonshik. This sent a twinge of fear in Hakyeon—what had this man done to Wonshik? The man was tall, with silvery white hair parted on either side of his face, the hair brushing neatly against his cheekbones, wearing a dark purple sashed garment. The man was handsome and young, a straight nose and sleepy eyes. His lips… small, but suiting him nicely. After all, his face was not very sharp, full of soft curves and gentleness. He was barefoot. The man looked incredibly worried behind his golden framed glasses.

Still, Hakyeon wanted to help people even when it was he who needed help. “Traveller, are you alright?”

The man looked confused, as if the question didn’t make sense. He was still silent, stepping close to Hakyeon and looking at his wound. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pretty black silk scarf, embroidered with branches from a tree… He would have to ask Hongbin what it was. Hakyeon was as confused as ever. Why was this stranger helping him? The man seemed confused at not being understood, as if Hakyeon was supposed to greet him like an old friend.

After the stranger had wrapped his wound, Hakyeon stands quickly, ignoring the dizzy feeling that swelled in his head. “I-I need to get going.” He knew he was panicking but he had to get out. He had to get away. Who was this stranger? Where was Wonshik?

What had happened to his best friend?

~*~*~

Hongbin looked at the wrap briefly, before pulling off the scarf. “Cryptomeria branches. Japanese pine,” he clarified. “The birth flower for February… despite it not being a flower. I’m still confused why Father did that.” Hongbin then turned his attention to the wound on Hakyeon’s shoulder. “The wrap was terrible, but I suppose it held well enough until you could find me.” He tucked the bloodied scarf into the strap of Hakyeon’s bow, before pressing a palm against Hakyeon’s wound. He pulled his hand away a moment later, “It’s mostly scabbed by now. But, I think I’m going to take you back to do some herbals. Of course, I’ll have to take the scabs off again, but—”

“Spare me the details, Hongbin,” Hakyeon said, face turning a pale green. “Please.”

“As you wish,” Hongbin replied, before taking Hakyeon’s hand, and pulling him outside. They walk for some time through the forest, the exposed wound burning and aching, the movement of his arm not helping. Hongbin stops in front of a grove of trees, inside which he lived. He steps closer, and the branches part around his steps. He guides Hakyeon in first, the branches closing behind them.

Hongbin fumbled around his shelves of things, bottles and cups and mortars and pestles full of different greens and browns. “Sit,” Hongbin instructed, and Hakyeon did as he was told as Hongbin kept looking. Hakyeon noted Hongbin talking to himself as he placed things on the counter next to where Hakyeon was sitting. “Marigold, echinacea root, basil…” and a few more things that Hakyeon didn’t know. 

Hongbin came back with several herbs, all in little bowls, and a mortar and pestle. Wordlessly, he reached a hand out, and began plucking off the scabs on Hakyeon’s wound. Hakyeon yelped but couldn’t do much to fight it now—it was already done. The blood started to seep from the wound again as Hongbin began crushing up flowers and leaves and other things until they began to form a thick, gross looking paste. Unappetizing as it was, Hakyeon was glad he wasn’t supposed to ingest it.

Hongbin scooped the mixture out of the mortar, and pressed it against Hakyeon’s wound. It burned, which Hongbin could tell from the discomfort on Hakyeon’s face. “Ah, I…forgot. Hold on.” Hongbin pushed Hakyeon so that he was lying back, so that the paste wouldn’t come off. He grabbed some mysterious looking bark, grinding it up and combining it with the paste on Hakyeon’s shoulder. The burning went down some, but it still ached. Hongbin then wrapped the wound in some leaves and vines as a compress, and sighed. “You can go.”

“I need to talk to you,” Hakyeon said, sitting up. 

“About what?” he replied, cleaning up after himself.

“Wonshik.”

Hongbin turned, “What about him? Did… he do this to you?” The way Hongbin’s voice sounded scared made Hakyeon afraid to tell him the truth. But he had to.

“Yes.”

“Ah…,” Hongbin sighed out. “I…will have to talk to him.”

“I don’t think you can,” Hakyeon said. “He’s gone. After he… bit me, he just disappeared. A stranger gave me that scarf.”

“A stranger?” Hongbin asked. “Must be a kind stranger.”

“Yes…” Hakyeon said absently, now thinking of the stranger again, and much distracted by the thrumming rush of blood in his ears. “He… was dressed in violet, which isn’t very common in the forest. He must have been a traveler.”

“Violet?” Hongbin questioned. He seemed to know something that Hakyeon didn’t know.

“I suppose I just wanted to tell you that Wonshik’s gone,” Hakyeon said, ignoring Hongbin’s question. He tried to ignore the rushing static feeling in his head. 

“Wonshik’s—” Hongbin started, but Hakyeon was out, cold.

~*~*~

It took Hakyeon two weeks to go back to the clearing where he and Wonshik played. The traveller in violet was still there. Hakyeon felt almost afraid of this man, even though the man had been nothing but kind to him. The traveller stood upon Hakyeon’s arrival, and smiled brightly, smiled as if he knew Hakyeon. Hakyeon did not know him. The traveller opened his mouth as if to speak, then shut it. Hakyeon handed him the scarf, now clean, “Here.”

The traveller shook his head, palms held up. _You keep it_ , the gesture said.

“I don’t want this.” The traveller looked hurt, and took back the scarf. The expression looked familiar to Hakyeon for some reason, though he couldn’t place why. Hakyeon sighed. “If you aren’t going to tell me what happened to Wonshik or why you’re here, I’m going to go.” Hakyeon was rarely ever cross with any of the creatures of the forest, but this traveller felt alienated.

The traveller looked at him for a long time in silence. Then, soundlessly, he reached down beside him and picked up an accordion. Typically travelers played a lute or a lyre, but it seemed this traveller was dead set on being different in a multiplicity of ways. The first words out of this traveller’s mouth were that of a love song. Hakyeon didn’t know what to do with this information. Why would the traveller do this? Hakyeon stepped back and the traveller stood and followed, accordion abandoned at his side. 

“Wait,” the traveller said. His voice was deep, husky, and warm. “Don’t go.”

“Why?” Hakyeon asked. Why should he stay for some stranger?

“I… have explaining to do.”

“Where’s Wonshik?”

The traveller sighed. “Right here.”

“Where?” Hakyeon asked dumbly. 

“Here! I’m Wonshik!”

“No,” Hakyeon said. “You’re lying to me. You’re a liar, you’re a cheat.”

“I’m not lying to you! I have nothing to gain from lying to you,” the traveller says.

“Explain.”

The traveller sighed once more, sitting again. Hakyeon sat across from him, some distance away. “I can’t change back right now, because I don’t have the emotional capacity. I won’t be able to until your wound’s healed. It was my fault it happened so I can’t change back until the blame is healed safely. But I am Wonshik. I assure you.”

“Prove it,” Hakyeon said. His voice was full of anger, venom. Something that was rare.

“You told me on the fifth day of us being friends that you desired nothing more than to befriend every creature, and to love everyone,” the traveller says.

“You could have learned that from anyone.”

“You suspect that your friend Taekwoon and Hongbin are secretly together.”

Hakyeon was suspicious of the traveller now.

“You said that you were jealous of that, because you wanted to be happy like them.”

Nobody could’ve known that except his close friends. And Wonshik.

“You…”

“I’m Wonshik. I told you,” the traveller said.

“Why couldn’t I tell you’re a shifter?”

“I’m practiced,” the traveller—Wonshik, now—said. “I learned for a long time how to blend in so that I could live with the bear sleuth that I live with currently. I learned my behaviors from them, and they welcome me. When I’m human, I often will live with Hongbin, who you know, or my friend Maeltaeg. He’s a human bard and dancer, but he understands my situation much like Hongbin and now you do too.”

“You… aren’t lying to me?”

“Swear on my life, I’m not.”

Hakyeon was still somewhat suspicious. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want to change into a human and be someone you didn’t like anymore. You liked me as a bear… I didn’t think you’d like me as a human,” Wonshik admitted soberly. Hakyeon could sense the controlled anxiety in his voice.

Hakyeon stood up with a sigh, “Come with me.”

Inside Hakyeon’s home, Wonshik sat nervously in his chair, pushing his glasses up as if they’d fallen when they most assuredly hadn’t. Hongbin had just arrived. Hakyeon grilled the both of them. Hongbin insisted he’d tried to tell Hakyeon twice that Wonshik was a shifter, that Wonshik was the traveller in the clearing, but that Hakyeon had left before he could be heard. Hongbin confirmed that Wonshik’s story was true. Wonshik could do little more than nod along as Hongbin rattles off how they’d met and became best friends. 

According to Hongbin, Wonshik became his best friend accidentally. Hongbin had a friend in Hakyeon, Taekwoon, Jaehwan, and Sanghyuk, but never a close friend. People believed Hongbin was too good for them—status, or looks, or anything else. Hongbin’s father had pressed Hongbin to inspect the North side, where he met Wonshik near the caves with the other bears. He spoke to them, and Wonshik offered a joke that made Hongbin laugh. They sat near the edge of the cave, bonding over their love for the human things—their games, their music, their art. Hongbin admitted his love of the lyre and Wonshik excitedly spilled his love of his accordion. The bond between them formed quickly and deeply.

With a hesitant nod, Hakyeon sent Hongbin away, insisting that he needed time to talk and think with Wonshik.

Wonshik sat in the silence while Hakyeon thought. Hakyeon thought over how he’d interacted with Wonshik over the month or two they’d been friends. They had gotten so close, inseparable, and forgivingly honest with each other. They told secrets and kept them, safe inside a vault of trusted friendship and key-locked lips. Lips… Wonshik had nice lips. Hakyeon had never known this, never known that Wonshik was a human, but now he realized this. He realized that the feelings of best friendship were different from that of Taekwoon because they were different feelings. He had felt a pull to Wonshik because it had been a pull of love. He didn’t know it, but he’d loved Wonshik. He always had. He was not sure what it was, the pull of Wonshik was intense and irresistible, no matter what form he was in. He loved Wonshik’s heart, the way Wonshik loved him, even without words.

Hakyeon looked over at Wonshik, still sitting quietly in one of the mossy plush chairs. He couldn’t believe he’d missed out on a handsome guy like this. Wonshik’s hair was a beautiful silver, parted nicely down the middle to frame his face handsomely. Hakyeon noted the ink embedded into Wonshik’s skin, a daisy chain of flowers under his collarbones, one on his wrist that was a sigil of some sort, and a beautiful crescent moon above the crook of his elbow. Wonshik was… beautiful.

Hakyeon couldn’t have stopped his hooves if he tried, as he got closer to Wonshik, who had nervously pushed up his glasses again. “H-Hey,” he said, nervously.

“Can I… kiss you?” Hakyeon asked.

“What?”

“Can I kiss you?” Hakyeon repeated.

“I—”

Hakyeon suddenly felt stupid and backed off. “Sorry, I… shouldn’t have… pres—”

Wonshik stood up, pressing his lips against Hakyeon’s, and for a moment the world is bliss. The birds outside sing a new and beautiful song, almost echoing the one Wonshik had sang for him earlier that day. Wonshik’s lips were soft, warm, and he tasted like blueberries and honey. The world seemed to tilt on its axis, pushing Hakyeon closer to Wonshik, who wrapped an arm around Hakyeon to cradle him closer. Hakyeon pulled away, a smile starting to echo the one on Wonshik’s face.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” Wonshik admitted.

“I’m glad you finally did.”


End file.
